The 是…的 (shì…de) construction vs 了 (le) in Chinese grammar
Both the 是…的 (shì…de) construction and 了 (le) can both be used to talk about past events in Mandarin Chinese grammar. Here's how to use the two constructions correctly, as they are different.
是…的 (shì…de): focus on the circumstances
A quick recap of the 是…的 (shì…de) construction.
是…的 is used to talk about events that happened in the past:
这家公司是2018年建立的。
是…的 can also emphasise some information in a sentence (that describes a past event):
包裹是昨天送到的。
她是骑车去城市里的。
The 是…的 construction describes past events, and can also emphasise particular details of a sentence such as time, manner or place.
Because 是…的 emphasises the circumstances of past events, it's useful for describing how, where or when something happened.
An example of using 是…的 to describe how something happened:
我是跟我的朋友们一起去的。
An example of using 是…的 to describe where something happened:
这辆自行车是我在网上买的。
An example of using 是…的 to describe when something happened:
他是昨天晚上到的。
The most important point is that 是…的 is suitable for describing the circumstances or manner of things in the past.
了 (le): focus on completion
Unlike 是…的, 了 (le) is not necessarily about the past. See this 了 (le) grammar summary for more details.
了 has many uses, one of which is about marking completeness of actions. 了 is commonly misunderstood as being about the past tense, but 了 is not about the past tense (Chinese grammar does not really have tenses).
Some examples using 了 that show how it is about completeness of an action, or a new state:
我昨天去了。
我来了。
他要生气了。
Other than not necessarily being about the past, 了 is also different to 是…的 in that it cannot be used to describe the circumstances of an action, only the completeness.
Comparing 是…的 and 了
Compare these sentences that are the same other than the use of 是…的 or 了:
我昨天买了面包。
面包是昨天买的。
Both describe an event in the past. The 了 sentence only indicates that the action was completed in that timeframe, whereas the 是…的 sentence emphasises the circumstances (the time it happened).
You can also see the difference if we make those sentences into questions:
你昨天买了面包吗？
面包是昨买的吗？
The difference seems subtle, but pay attention to the re-phrasings that highlight where the emphasis is.
With “你昨天买了面包吗？”, it seems that buying bread might be a regular occurrence, or at least that the asker expected you to have bought bread yesterday. They are primarily asking whether or not this action was completed at all, and the time is just a bit of context for the question.
With “面包是昨买的吗？”, the fact the bread was purchased is already an established fact. The asker wants to know specifically whether it happened yesterday and not some other day. Perhaps the asker wants to know how fresh the bread is, so they use 是…的 to focus on the circumstances of the action, in this case the time.
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